Category Archives: what I’m up to

any requests...?, lyrics and lines I especially admire, songs, what I'm up to

Poisoned By McDonalds Blues

Leave a comment

My friend Jonny posted this as his facebok status about an hour ago:

POISONED BY MACDONALDS BLUES went to macd’s for a wispa mcflurry now im running to the toilet in a hurry went to macd’s, got me a big mac spent the next day flat on my back went to macd’s for a diet coke outta my way im gonna boke went to macd’s, got me some fries now i feel like im gonna die i aint ever goin back to eat that food although i hear the big tasty is quite good i got those poisoned by macdonalds blues

So I did a wee recording.

lyrics and lines I especially admire, music, New Dublin Voices and other choral singing, poll, this freelancing business, what I'm up to

Some recording, a new piece, and a bursary

Leave a comment

I’m writing this while eating a Cadbury’s Dairy Milk. Raising a glass and a half to the taste of world-beating excellence. Please, American Kraft people (and I know you’re reading this blog…), don’t change it. Although I’m still a bigger fan of Quality Street than Roses. Just saying.

Last weekend I was recording with New Dublin Voices – Christmas music – in St Ann’s church on Dawson Street. It’s a lovely church to sing in but it was really cold. We did two sessions (usually three hours between meals in the biz) on both Saturday and Sunday and a rehearsal session on the Friday night, too. Needless to say, by the Sunday I was better prepared, piling on the layers and swapping the shoes-with-a-slight-heel that were recommended to me for singing in for my scruffy-but-comfortable trainers. I also used a music stand both days which saved me having to hold the music the whole time. The recording was produced by Bill Sommerville-Large and he was very good to work with. He guided us through the process and made clear suggestions as to where singers should be positioned. He has a wonderful ear and I’m looking forward to hearing the recordings, which we hope to put out on CD after the summer.

On Sunday, during one of the breaks between takes, I sidled over to the piano and my fingers fell onto a chord – hands centred just either side of middle C, right hand on a 2nd inversion Bb triad, left hand on a 1st inversion Eb triad. It sounded quite beautiful to my ears and over the next few hours I kept slipping back to the keyboard. “That’s the start of my new choral piece!”, I joked to those nearby. There was something cooking, though, and by the time we were packing up, I had a strong sense that this really was a new piece. At home I played it over a number of times, finding another section…

The next day I was in search of a text. I really like the poems of Dennis O’Driscoll but leafing through a volume of his work proved fruitless. Nothing suited the feel of this music. I took myself out to a local café for a cup of tea and grabbed a book on the way – a book of Celtic Verse given to me for my birthday a few years ago. I knew some things about the text I as looking for: it had to have quite short lines and it had to start on the upbeat. I forget the poetry term…<consults Stephen Fry’s excellent book ‘The Ode Less Travelled’>…ah, yes, it’s iambic. Mr Fry also includes a rather nice chocolate reference:

GOLDEN RULE ONE – reading verse can be like eating chocolate, so much more pleasurable when you allow it slowly to melt inside you, so much less rewarding when you snap off big chunks and bolt them whole, all but untasted.

Well, dear reader, I found it. The one. A poem that not only suited my chosen metre but, when I got it home and played it at the piano, seemed to compliment the music beautifully. The piece was finished! I can still hardly believe it. I spent the next day typing it into Sibelius and preparing scores for the choir to sing through it at our rehearsal. Everyone seemed to like it. Here is the poem, by Villiers de L’Isle-Adam (1838-1889):

Confession

Since I have lost the words, the flower
Of youth and the fresh April breeze . . .
Give me thy lips; their perfumed dower
Shall be the whisper of the trees!

Since I have lost the deep sea’s sadness,
Her sobs, her restless surge, her graves . . .
Breathe but a word; its grief or gladness
Shall be the murmur of the waves!

Since in my soul a sombre blossom
Broods, and the suns of yore take flight . . .
O hide me in thy pallid bosom,
And it shall be the calm of night!

My other big task for this week was completing my application for a bursary award from the Arts Council. It would be so great to get it but I’m not going to get my hopes up because only two applicants out of ten have been awarded in the last couple of years. Gathering together the support material made me realise how much stuff I have but also how unclear that is on the website. I plan to do a page with all the recordings I’ve done, with lyrics and a link to a score on Sibelius where possible.

composers, what I'm up to

Two thousand and ten

1 Comment

I’m excited about this year. I plan to start working on a portfolio of compositions with a view to starting a Masters in September. That will hinge on developing good work practices – finding a way to do some composition every day. I have a few pieces that I’d like to record, too, and I’d like to get those documented before the end of January.

Another important task for this month will be putting together an application to The Arts Council for a bursary to allow me to do this work. Then there’s the small matter of finding and applying for streams of funding for the Masters…

Along the way I’d also like to get my Grade Eight piano (which will involve some serious work and practice).

I’ll be blogging all the way so please check back regularly or subscribe to the RSS. Let me know if you’re doing similar things or if you have any advice. A big thing to get sorted out will be how to structure my working day at home and keep focussed. We live in a small apartment so I’m going to have to put my keyboard up each day and take it down again when Jen gets home (it kind of takes over the kitchen). We’ll see…!

Best discoveries of the past few weeks:

Morten Lauridsen. Trinity Singers performed his ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ at their Christmas concert and I had sung his setting of ‘Sure On This Shining Night’ at a choral conducting course last year. Bewitching and justifiably one of the most performed contemporary choral composers.

Eric Whitacre. I had heard some of his music and noticed a schism amongst musical people I know in relation to it. It was only the other week, though, that I bought the recording Polyphony did of his music and listened properly. Again, I was very moved by the sounds he elicits from the choir, his setting of text. His pathway into composition is very inspiring to me at this point; his blog (soaringleap) is also full of interesting insights into the life of a working composer. I hope I get to sing some of his music soon 🙂

Classical Music Master Collection. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch and you like music then get this app. What is it? It’s only “800 complete tracks (100 hours of music) by the great composers including Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Bach”!! It costs €1.59 from the iTunes app store. Seriously amazing value. There are more great apps detailed in this article from The Guardian.

what I'm up to

Harmonic Folk Pop

2 Comments

Last night was the launch gig for James Vincent McMorrow’s debut album release at The Sugar Club in Dublin.  While the album isn’t ready yet – it’s scheduled for a January 2010 release – James managed to put together a rather nice limited edition EP of three tracks with the help of his talented girlfriend. She made a lino print and did one hundred covers that James signed for people afterwards.  The three tracks are ‘We Don’t Eat’ (its polyrhythmic drive featured in a recent episode of One Tree Hill. Which I’m watching now for research purposes. <token dissing of the show removed after enjoying (bits of) it>), ‘And If My Heart Should Somehow Stop’, and ‘Hear The Noise That Moves’.

I first played with James back in March last year in Whelans and then again a month later. He’s been busy since then working on becoming a recording artist (only part of which is actually recording, it seems!). His album sounds great; he gave me an unmixed copy to learn the songs from and I’m looking forward to hearing the finished version.I hope it’s a success because I’d love to play the songs to lots of people 🙂

So here’s what we (me on keys/banjo, Dave Lea on drums, Peter Ryan on bass) played:

  • We Are Ghost (solo)
  • This Old Dark Machine
  • Sparrow And The Wolf
  • And If My Heart Should Somehow Stop
  • Hear The Noise That Moves (solo)
  • Follow You Down To The Red Oak Tree (solo)
  • From The Woods
  • If I Had A Boat
  • Early In The Morning
  • In Dreams (solo cover of the beautiful Roy Orbison song with that delicious I – IVm chord change on “…just before the dawn I awake and find you gone…”. Huh, nice piano playing on this live version including interpolation of Bach’s C major prelude at the start.)
  • I End The Conversation (solo)

Jen took some great photos, one of which she used for her photo of the day project. Go and check them all out 🙂

links, New Dublin Voices and other choral singing, what I'm up to

Joy be with you all

Leave a comment

Played banjo on RTÉ’s arts programme, The View, last night with James Vincent McMorrow.

I also sang carols with some of my fellow New Dublin Voices on the steps of The Gate theatre in full Victorian garb, complete with top hat. They were celebrating the opening night of Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ and it was probably as interesting for us to see the parade of Dublin’s finest heading up the steps as it was for them to hear our singing!

(Quick plug – NDV gigs in John Field Room (11th), St Ann’s (12th), and Blanchardstown (19th).)

Loving the banjo at the moment. I didn’t know that it was actually invented by African slaves in the US by combining different African instruments. (One of the best banjo players in the world is Béla Fleck. I’ve seen him play a couple of times in Dublin. He made a film tracing the banjo’s African roots: trailer looks good…) I’ve been practicing by playing traditional Irish tunes out of a book I found years ago at home called ‘Whistle and Sing!’. It was compiled in 1974 by a man named Eamonn Jordan who lived in Portadown (where I grew up) and it’s an absolute treasure trove of songs, airs, and dance music from Ireland.

Despite not growing up on the side of the fence that celebrated Irish trad music I will be forever indebted to my dad for passing on and fostering a love of our musical heritage. He never learned to play an instrument himself but encouraged me and my sister to play. He brought me along to my first session when we were off on one of our mountain-climbing trips – me barely able to play more than a few chords on my first, high-actioned, acoustic guitar!

Sláinte, dad xo

forthcoming events, New Dublin Voices and other choral singing, what I'm up to

Something beginning with B

Leave a comment

Imagine confining yourself to a single letter.

“Platoon” and “Peter Pan” in a month watching only films starting with “P”. Cornflakes and carrot-cake on a day devoted to food beginning with “C”.

For their winter concerts on November 21, 22 & 28, the international award-winning New Dublin Voices have done just that: everything in the concert begins with “B”.

What could have been a constraint in fact proved liberating. NDV burrowed deeply into all that “B” has to offer and came up with a wonderful programme embracing the new – the 2008 surround-sound effect of Sea Swell by Irish composer Enda Bates – and old – madrigals by Bennet in the 16th century – and the familiar – Brahms, Bartók, Britten and Bernstein – and the excitingly obscure – an incredible, unforgettable piece by one Wolfram Buchenberg.

And to round things off, some Beatles, some Barbershop. And The Barber of Seville.

“B” there!

St. Ann’s Church, Dawson St.

Sat Nov 21st @ 8pm

Carlingford Heritage Centre, Louth

Sun Nov 22nd @ 7pm

St. Augustine’s Church, Galway

Sat Nov 28th @ 8pm

Programme includes:

Britten: Hymn to St Cecilia

Brahms: Drei gesange op 42

Buchenberg: Klangfelder

Bates: Sea Swell

Bernstein: Warm-up

Biebl: Ave Maria

€16/€12 (con) at the door or www.ctb.ie 0818 205 205

For further information please contact Lucy Champion at +353 87 983 2553 or lucy6603@yahoo.co.uk

New Dublin Voices was founded by conductor Bernie Sherlock in October 2005. It has since become a leading Irish chamber choir presenting concert programmes that are fresh, innovative, and exciting, ranging widely in style and period from the medieval to the contemporary. The choir takes special pleasure in exploring the often weird and wonderful music of living composers, and has given numerous Irish and world premieres.

Competitive successes include National Choir of the Year at the Navan Choral Festival (2006, 2007, 2009), several awards at the Cork International Choral Festival, including National Choir of the Festival in 2006, and various prizes at Dublin Feis Ceol.

Awards in 2009 include the Grand Prix at the 12th Budapest International Choir Competition, third prize at the International Chamber Choir Competition in Marktoberdorf, Germany; third prize and the special prize for the best interpretation of the set work (Laudatio Domini by Kokkonon) at the 3rd Harald Andersen Chamber Choir Competition in Helsinki, Finland; and the inaugural ESB Feis Ceol Choir of the Year.

newdublinvoices.net

forthcoming events, links, what I'm up to

First gig with Hamlet in ages

Leave a comment

Last Wednesday Hamlet and I played our first gig together in ages. He’s been busy at work (and honing his stand-up comedy skills) and I’ve been teaching full-time in primary schools. It was great to play his songs again and dust off the keyboard. I’m sure it’s been glaring at me, albeit in an inanimate, non-ocular sort of way.

Hamlet doesn’t often do covers so I was very pleased when he said he wanted to do Christy Moore’s wonderful ‘Ride On’.

Here’s the evidence, courtesy of Franziska Blum:

Next gig with Hamlet is on 15 December in the Odessa club.

My dear sister was also using my keyboard this week – playing on the RTÉ Sunday Morning mass with some other Trinity alumni and students. You can watch it here until 29 November.

beautiful minds, funny funny funny, songs for children, what I'm up to

We’re going on a bear hunt

1 Comment

Yesterday I was teaching classes in Our Lady of Victories Infant School in Ballymun. We had been doing all kinds of stories and music about bears over the past few weeks. Goldilocks, a campfire song called ‘The other day I met a bear’ and – my favourite – Michael Rosen’s wonderful action-story ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’. His sing-song delivery is perfect for young children to copy.

If you are a teacher or a crèche worker and would like a music visit please get in touch 🙂

what I'm up to

Hip-hop est mort…?

Leave a comment

Found this article from The New Yorker about the move in pop music away from the swing groove of hip-hop to a more European style of dance music – a more straight beat.  Jen and I were just last night listening to the Jay-Z track featuring Rihanna mentioned in the article, “Run This Town”.

Sasha Frere-Jones notes that “Rihanna has to tackle a dreary and aimless melody that could be saved only by someone with a surplus of persona. (Mary J. Blige and Nina Simone come to mind.)”  The track certainly is a testament to the quality of Rihanna’s voice and the comparison is interesting.

I love hip-hop but I like this new stuff, too.  I’m thinking of tunes like Teddy Riley’s remix of John Legend’s “It’s Over” and Timbaland’s “The Way I Are”.  That semiquaver-semiquaver-quaver ostinato, that’s what I think of.  Me likey.